Rura haven’t exactly rushed the production of their second album, it’s just a little over 3 years since their first and in the today’s thriving and fluid Scottish folk music scene that’s far longer than the lifetime of many musical groupings. But Rura certainly haven’t been resting. They’ve played gigs large and small both at home and abroad, collected a fair few award nominations and recruited Adam Brown to take over guitar duties from Chris Waite. Most significantly, their music has developed to produce a heady amalgam of the tight, intricate instrumental arrangements which have always been their forte, the emotive voice of Adam Holmes and a sparse dusting of mood setting electronica. Delivery of this last component is, in part, credited to the album’s producer, Ali Hutton of The Treacherous Orchestra.
Album artwork of dramatically lit grey crags, swooping black birds and a band photograph with side lit faces, much of the rest in shadow, combined with an opening track entitled Dark Reel, point towards a sombre mood. The liner notes for that track speak of it being their first step to finding the sound they wanted for the album. I saw Rura recently, before I received Despite The Dark to review. Their performance that night, much of which came from the album, certainly didn’t put the audience in a sombre mood. So I approached Dark Reel somewhat intrigued. The track opens with 15 seconds or so of ethereal, undulating synthesizer before Adam Brown’s acoustic guitar contributes some phrases and arpeggios, later overlain by a melody from Steven Blake’s pipes. This proceeds at a gentle pace until, almost half way through the track, David Foley’s bodhrán injects a much faster rhythm and the pipes do what pipes do best, adding variation on variation to the punchy insistent melody. Now, I saw this as a transition from dark into light, so I was initially surprised when Steven commented that he felt Dark Reel grew darker as it went on. We agreed, though, about the sense of change and contrasting fortune that underlies much of the album. I don’t find the album predominantly downbeat though, from the title the emphasis is on ‘Despite’, not ‘Dark’.
Dark Reel is a composition by Fraser Fifield and the closing track, The Lasher, is from Irish whistle and uilleann pipe master Brendan Ring. Individual band members have contributed the remaining tracks, with a little outside help on some, a tune from producer Ali Hutton, a joint credit on The Lowground between Moshen Amini and David Foley, (they play together in a band called, The Lowground, funny that) and a Burns poem provides the lyric to one of Adam Holmes’ songs. Where all the band, plus producer Ali Hutton, get involved is with the arrangements. As Steven commented “We really enjoy the arrangement process and working with material whether that’s traditional, contemporary, self-written or composed by someone else.” This shows through in the intimacy of arrangements such as the first part of Weary Days, with David Foley inserting a flute line between verses and Jack Smedley’s fiddle behind Adam’s voice, boosting the chorus. This song proved to be a very pleasing earworm and the lyrics make you hope it was written for a specific girl who really was that wonderful. In a contrasting arrangement, David’s tune, The Glorious 45, is served up with a full set of interweaving instruments, the pipes taking the lead with flute and fiddle adding their phrases over a rhythm set initially by guitar and then bodhrán, a rhythm that steadily builds to the climax of the track. Just what one hopes for from the current breed of young Scottish musicians. Well versed in the tradition, super proficient on their instruments and equally familiar with the tastes of an audience as likely to listen to mainstream rock and pop as to anything to which a ‘folk’ label could be attached.
Adam Holmes’ thoughtful, breathily-delivered songs adds a contrasting texture that enriches the whole album and the songs bring into focus some of the underlying emotions of the album. They’re in plain view with stanzas such as –
I feel a change is coming people, don’t you feel it too?
Like a darker day’s approaching and there’s nothing we can do
Where many face a sentence through the actions of a few
I feel a change is coming people, don’t you feel it too?
With Despite the Dark, Rura have not only produced an album of its time for Scotland, but one with the musical breadth and strength to ensure it will appeal to a far wider audience. It has reinforced my view that Rura is a band growing in stature and confidence and I’m eagerly looking forward to their next steps.
Review by: Johnny Whalley
Between The Pines
The Lasher
Out Now
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Rura play Stepping Stones Festival on 13th June as well as Cambridge Folk Festival on (30 Jul – 1 Aug). For for full details of their upcoming tour dates visit: http://www.rura.co.uk/